


Dear Gravity

by orphan_account



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, OFC - Freeform, Original Character(s), Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-09-09
Updated: 2012-09-08
Packaged: 2017-11-13 20:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/507626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex has always known that something was being kept secret from her, but little did she know that it was her species. When meeting the Doctor turns her already semi-odd life on its head, she is forced to explore a heritage that might have been better left untouched. 11/OC</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dear Gravity

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from Tiffany Blews by Fall Out Boy (I’ve been waiting to use it for quite a while).

_Dear gravity, you held me down in this starless city_

The menacing machine advanced towards her, its harsh, grinding voice almost unintelligible as it screeched, “Exterminate! We are… We are… We are…”

Alexandrusil Phorbitus sat bolt upright in her small bed, that rough voice of metal on metal still echoing through her head. There was a word, a word she could never quite remember when she awoke. Trying to remember it was like trying to catch that illusive flash of movement in the corner of your eye. “We are –”

We are what?

It was always on the tip of her tongue when she came back to consciousness. On one hand she found it irritating that she could never remember it, but on the other she always felt somewhat relieved, like remembering that word would suck her into another world, a world she wasn’t entirely convinced she wanted to be a part of. That was the other paradox, though. At the same time, she wanted desperately to be a part of that world.

And that was her life, a life of paradoxes and oddities. She felt like she was permanently straddling the line between two worlds, one of which was relatively safe and secure while the other was perilous and full of excitement. Of course, this second world was only a figment of her dreams that occasionally bled over into her reality.

Staggering out of the dorm bed, she flicked on the bedside lamp and flattened out her rumpled uniform skirt. The blue and gold silk tie trying to strangle her reminded her why she usually tried to refrain from falling asleep in her uniform. St. Margaret’s Academy was an all-girls boarding school in northern England and was, much to Alex’s initial dismay, roughly thirty minutes from absolutely nowhere. It wasn’t so much that she missed the overcrowded rush of London as that she missed the freedom to wander that the city provided, and if there was one thing she loved to do, it was wander. It didn’t matter where, so long as she was on the move. Her dad always said – in a half-exasperated, half-wistful voice – that it came from her mum, but that was all he would say on the subject, always refusing to elaborate. Here on the closed SMA campus she felt like a cadged bird being forced to ignore the urge to migrate. Somehow, she got the irrational feeling that this was exactly what her dad had intended, to stifle that wandering part of her.

Alex yanked her sketchbook off the overstuffed bookshelf, and almost as if it knew what she was looking for, the tattered yellow book fell open to a picture she’d drawn some months before. As she had expected, it was the same robot creature from her most recent dream. That picture wasn’t the only one of its kind, either. The entire sketchbook was filled with drawings of strange creatures, twin suns in an orange sky, and silver leaves that shone like a glorious conflagration in the light of sunset. The dreams had started when she was eight and increased in volume and intensity until now, nine-and-a-half years later, she could no longer sleep like a regular seventeen year-old. It was a very good thing she didn’t seem to require nearly as much sleep as her peers.

She was about to replace the book on the shelf when she felt it – a feeling she could only describe as a tug on the fabric of the world. She’s felt the same feeling many times before, and it almost always heralded some strange event or another. Nothing too bad, though; just the occasional cat walking through the air or blue, pointy-eared substitute teacher, weird stuff like that. In truth, she both hated and loved seeing those things for the exact same reason: They made her different.

Normally, like now, it felt like a single thread in the fabric of the universe was being tugged at with a pair of tweezers, but not hard enough to tear it, just enough to pull it slightly out of place and make a catch in the material. Alex was about to ignore it when she felt it again. This time, however, it was unlike any other time she’s ever felt it. It was less like someone was gently tugging at a single thread and more like someone had caught a handful of threads and was trying to rip them out.

She threw a cursory glance at the clock.

2:17 AM

The hall master would already long since be asleep. Without even thinking, she pulled on her red Converses and softly opened the door to her single, careful not to make any noise. That was one of the benefits of being the crazy girls who saw things, talked in her sleep, and kept sneaking off campus to walk aimlessly about the countryside: You didn’t have to deal with a roommate. After the third girl to ask for a room transfer, the school had just given up.

Her footsteps were almost inhumanly light as she crept towards the end of the hall and produced a master key to the dorm building that she’d nicked within the first week of school. She wasn’t meant to stay in one place, and there was no way a couple of decrepit locks were going to change that. Once outside she almost slipped on the dew-slick grass; she might be quiet, but that didn’t mean she was graceful.

The curiosity produced by the tug on the world-strings propelled her south towards the edge of campus. She hid in the deep shadows of the science building so as not to be seen and gazed past the elegant wrought-iron fence that surrounded the school to the light that pulsed like a beacon calling to her across the grassy hills. Cursing her damnable curiosity, she flattened herself against the old masonry of the building before running full tilt at the towering fence and grabbing hold of the top in a feat of seer agility that most humans couldn’t hope to parallel. From there it was easy enough to pull herself over and land cat-like on the other side. A satisfied smirk crossed her face; it would take more than this school had to offer to keep her where she didn’t want to be.

Moving fast and keeping low to the ground in case anyone happened to be looking out a window, Alex made her way to where a faint pulsing, grinding sound came from and came up short where the air before her blurred into blue. Before her eyes a bright blue police box materialized to sit on the otherwise barren hill. There was only enough time for her to blink three times in rapid succession before a lanky man with brown hair and a bow tie stepped out and looked around with a somewhat confused look on his face. “This is _not_ the Edo period. Last time I checked, feudal Japan didn’t have moors. Then again, my checking does tend to change things a tad.” He tacked on the last bit as a kind of afterthought, turning his head to one side thoughtfully. Then, as if noticing Alex for the first time, his face lit up with a wide grin, and he said, “Hello there. Can you tell me when I am?”

The chestnut-haired girl opened and closed her mouth a couple time before finally stuttering out, “Um, 2012?”

“You don’t sound too sure of that. And judging by that accent, I’d say that we’re somewhere in southern England.”

“The North, actually.”

“Anything more specific, or is it just ‘the North?’”

“Does the northern end of the middle of nowhere qualify as more specific? I mean, there’s a few sheep about four miles down the road, but that’s about it.”

“You’re funny; that’s always good. So, northern England in 2012 AD.” The odd man threw a reproachful look back at his blue box. “Because that’s not random _at all._ Well, at least it’s the right planet. Um, is there any particular reason that you’re standing on a moor at,” He glanced up at the sky for a second. “2:29 in the morning?”

“I was curious, but what’s your excuse? I’m not the one who just walked out of a little blue box that appeared from nothing.”

“Transportation malfunction,” he said dryly with another glance that his police box. “So tell me, what’s with the skirt and tie?”

Alex glanced down at her blue and gold striped tie and matching plaid skirt as if expecting them to have changed in the last fifteen minutes. “I’m a student at St. Margaret’s. It’s the boarding school just over there,” she clarified, seeing the stranger’s perplexed look and pointing back towards the school.

“You’re awfully calm for someone talking to a mysterious man in a bow tie who came out of a blue box.”

She shrugged. “Weird things tend to happen to me.”

“Now, that raises the real question: What could make a girl who’s used to having weird things happen to her curious enough to wander, oh, say a quarter of a mile from school and onto a moor in the dead of night?”

“You’re giving me a headache, that’s what.”

“That’s hardly what I’d call fair. I’m not that annoying.”

“No, it’s not that,” she said, pressing the heels of her hands into her temples. “There are too many ripples, and you’re one of them. And I don’t think it’s just you, either. You cause ripples in the fabric, but you don’t tear at it. Something else is doing that.”

“What do you mean I ‘cause ripples’?”

“There’s no use trying to explain it; no one ever understands.”

“Do I look like no one?”

She heaved a great sigh, and said in a flat, clipped voice, “Fine, on your own confusion be it. I feel the world like a giant piece of cloth stretched tight between two points. It should be perfectly still, but there are things that make it ripple or pull at its strings. The things that ripple, like you, usually pass by without causing much trouble, but the things that pull at the strings are a bit more of a problem. That usually means that something is out of place in a bad way, unlike you, who seems to be out of place in a good way – if that exists. And this time, it’s not just one string being pulled at; it’s an entire handful of them.” She gave the stranger a wary look. “You don’t need to bother trying to be polite when you tell me that I’m mad.”

“Where?”

“Huh?”

“You said that you could feel something out of place other than me, so surely you can tell me where it is.”

“Over there by Parvus Lake.” She pointed over the crest of the hill and was surprised when the tall man started off in that direction. Trailing slightly behind his longer stride, she asked, “So you don’t think I’m mad?”

“Assuming that someone is mad always leads to trouble. Much better to just listen to them under the assumption that they know what they’re talking about. And no, I don’t think you’re mad. In fact, I know you’re not mad. What you’re feeling are called temporal anomalies. Very unusual for a human to be able to sense those.” He gave her a speculative look. “You are human, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am! What else would I be? I look just like you. Or are you telling me that you’re not human?”

The man didn’t respond except to pause at the crest of the hill to look down on the lake that was visible some distance below. “I’d hardly call that that a lake. More like an oversized rain puddle.”

Panting slightly as she caught up with him, Alex froze, and her green eyes widened with fear as she caught sight of the giant serpent writhing in the lake. “And of course you would comment on the size of the lake and not the giant slimy thing flopping about in it.”

“Well, I’ve seen one of those before, but I’ve never seen a puddle this small labelled as a lake.”

“What is it?”

“I’d say a small pond,” he said in a speculative voice. “Oh, you mean the Aquamantus. Think of it as Nessie’s older, mild-tempered cousin. You’re right; that’s defiantly something out of place. What’s your name?”

“Alex. What about you?”

“Pleasure to meet you, Alex. I’m the Doctor.”

“And is there at least a sir name to go with that title? I know several doctors.”

“Oh, don’t worry; none like me, but that’s probably for the better. I’m the Doctor with a capital D. Now Alex, why don’t you go back to the school? I doubt he means to be, but he’s probably dangerous to be around in this state.”

“I’m not going anywhere until I know everything’s safe. Students sneak down here quite a bit to go swimming, and I don’t want one of them to get, I don’t know, eaten or something because I went back to the school before everything was sorted out.”

“No one listens to me. Ever. Especially women. Well, it can’t be helped. We need to get rid of that thing before he gets even angrier.”

“You’re not going to just kill it, are you?”

“You were scared stiff of him thirty seconds ago!”

“That doesn’t mean I want you to hurt it! If it’s potentially harmful to the students who sneak over here, then something has to be done, but if it’s not bad, I don’t want it to get injured.”

“I like the way you think!” he said with redoubled enthusiasm, rubbing his hands together. “Most people would just go ‘Ah, strange, ugly creature! Let’s kill it!’ And by the way, I know for a fact that he thinks we’re just as ugly. No, I don’t intend to hurt him. He could injure someone because he’s lost and confused, but Aquamantus aren’t naturally aggressive creatures. They travel between fresh bodies of water via natural underground aquifers.”

“Why’s it stuck here?”

“Well, that’s what you get for calling that duck pond a lake, isn’t it? You two have something in common. He also thought this puddle was a lake and assumed he could fit in it.”

“Everyone at school calls it a lake, so I call it a lake,” Alex said somewhat defensively.

“Mmm, following the crowd. Always a bad idea. Even so, we need to do something about this. He won’t intentionally hurt anyone, but he very possible could on accident since he’s all worked up about being stuck. Looks to me like he doesn’t have enough energy to move to a new – _real_ – lake.”

“And how, pray tell, do you intend to move big boy over there without injuring him?”

“Now did I say anything about moving him? No, I didn’t. Assumptions, assumptions. I plan to give him the ability to move himself. Aquamantus are like huge, water-dwelling batteries; they feed off the lightning that inevitably strikes whatever body of water they’re in, but the problem here is that this ’lake’ has too little surface area to get struck by lightning any time within this century. Is there a power station anywhere close by?”

“Roughly twenty-five minutes to our south.”

The Doctor pulled a face at the distance. “I suppose you wouldn’t happen to know where the school get’s its power from? I don’t see any power lines.”

“They’re buried underground. On the crest of that hill opposite us, as a matter of fact.”

The brunet man stared at her blankly. “How in the name of Ood would you know that?”

Shrugging, Alex said, “I get called into the principal’s office quite a bit, and I can pick locks. Put two and two together and I know much more about St. Margaret’s than I should.”

The Doctor opened his mouth to say something, but broke off as caught sight of the school in the distance. Yellow lights had begun to flicker on in buildings across campus, throwing the area into glowing relief from the midnight black that otherwise surrounded them. “I’d say that they just noticed your absence. That, or they will very soon. I suggest you hurry back before things get even worse.”

“But the Aquamantus–”

“Will be just fine. He’s in very capable hands now, but I can’t have them coming out here to look for you and accidentally seeing our incapacitated little friend. I’ll take care of him; trust me.”

And somehow, she did. There was something about this bizarre man that made her _want_ to trust him. With one last backwards glance that the mysterious doctor, she started off at a run back towards the school. This time, however, she didn’t bother trying to stay out of sight. They already knew she was off campus, and it didn’t matter where she had been beyond that. As long as she had been off campus – which they would automatically assume thanks to her prior excursions – she was doomed to filing duties for the next month. If she was lucky.

“One more thing,” called the Doctor from behind her. “Sorry about the power outage.”

“What power outage?” she shouted back.

“The one that’s going to happen in roughly seven minutes.”


End file.
